Doctor bleeding a patient

Medicine and health

On 20 July 1969, Lunar Module 'Eagle' touched down gently on the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. (Photo by NASA/Newsmakers via Getty Images)

From ‘moon-germs’ to motion sickness: health and safety on NASA’s 1969 lunar landing mission. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

US soldiers in Vietnam

From the Napoleonic Wars to Vietnam and Iraq: a history of war trauma. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval trepanning

General prehistory

Q&AWhat is trepanning?

The ancient Greek physician Dioscorides

General ancient history

Happy plants and laughing weeds: how people of the ancient world used – and abused – drugs

The story of Madame Tussaud. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

After her recovery from smallpox, Queen Elizabeth I started using a ceruse foundation on her face, neck and chest. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

5 weird habits of royals through history

An illustration from 1883 shows the phrenology chart of the skull

The Victorian phrenology craze. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An ancient Roman relief shows a midwife delivering a baby. Many midwives had other occupations, and undertook the task as a contribution to their community. (Wellcome Images)

Call the (Roman) midwife

Lady Sybil Grey, an indomitable Englishwoman who, as a nurse in Russia, led a field hospital and had a grandstand view of the February 1917 revolution that toppled the tsar. (Illustration by Sue Gent for BBC History Magazine)

The LibraryLady Sybil Grey: a lady in the line of fire. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Paul Morland. (Photo by Frank Monks)

Books interview with Paul Morland: “Even the Spanish flu pandemic wasn’t enough to stop population growth”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The First World War promoted advances in medicine, and in sectors such as aviation, that had not just military but also peacetime benefits, says David Stevenson. Here Captain Francis Derwent Wood treats the face of a patient, creating a mask which matches as closely as possible to the man's faces before he was injured, c1916. (Photo by Horace Nicholls/ IWM via Getty Images)

The First World War: what was it good for?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The miller Samuel Wood, whose arm and scapula were torn off when entangled in a rope attached to a moving mill machinery in 1737. (Photo by Alamy)

7 bizarre cases in the history of medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Kill or cure? 10 medieval medical practices and their effectiveness

Nurses serve lunch to patients at a Birmingham hospital, 1939. (Photo by Humphrey Spender/Picture Post/Getty Images)

What was healthcare like in Britain before the NHS?

A New York opium den. Although US legislators cracked down on opiates in the early 20th century, organised crime networks continued to fuel the illegal trade in narcotics. (Photo by Getty Images)

Books interview with Lucy Inglis: “Opium has held mankind’s hand since the beginning”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval medicine: killer or cure?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

An introduction to the Black Death

Welsh Labour politician Aneurin Bevan making a speech on the freedom of the press at a meeting of the National Council of Civil Liberties at Central Hall, Westminster, London, in 1942. (Photo by Kurt Hutton/Picture Post/Getty Images)

My history heroTanni Grey-Thompson chooses Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A man sneezes into a handkerchief, c1936. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

General History

6 facts about the history of hay fever

Mona Baptiste, a Trinidad-born blues singer

“London is the place for me”: David Olusoga on the Windrush generation. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A bite-sized history of teeth. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Bearded Victorian man. (Photo by Getty Images)

A brief history of beards

A 14th-century Flemish illustration depicting the burying of plague victims in coffins in Tournai in 1349. (Photo by Granger Historical Picture Archive/Alamy Stock Photo)

Black Death: “Oh father, why have you abandoned me?”. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A contemporary pictorial depiction of the Great Plague.

The Black Death: the historians’ view. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

500 years of medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A badge promoting the Tufty Club, an organisation launched by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to educate children on road safety, 1941. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)

Safety first: 20th-century health and safety messages

The history of today. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

The Spanish Flu pandemic. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

In pictures: Diversity in nursing

Victorian medicine. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.